Children Left Behind by the Child Tax Credit in 2022
The 2021 Child Tax Credit expansion included the one-third of children formerly left out of the full credit and resulted in historic poverty reduction. The expansion’s expiration excluded these children once again and child poverty rates rose sharply in response. This analysis updates the share and profile of children left out of the full Child Tax Credit in 2022, representing 26% of all children.
What Would 2022 Child Poverty Rates Have Looked Like if an Expanded Child Tax Credit Had Still Been in Place?
The sharp spike in child poverty from 2021 to 2022 represents the largest year-over-year increase on record and is largely the result of the expiration of the 2021 temporary Child Tax Credit expansion. This policy brief examines what 2022 child poverty could have been if an expanded Child Tax Credit had been continued.
Paying for Child Care to Work? Evaluating the Role of Policy in Affordable Care and Child Poverty
Most working parents need child care. We analyze two approaches to reduce child-care expenses for low-income working families: 1) making the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit fully refundable and increasing its generosity, and 2) providing subsidies to increase affordability.
Monthly Poverty Rates among Children after Expansion of the Child Tax Credit
This policy brief discusses the estimated impact of the expanded Child Tax Credit on the monthly poverty rate for July 2021 in the United States. Monthly poverty fell from 15.8 percent in June to 11.9 percent in July, representing a decline of 3 million children living in poverty. This drop in child poverty is primarily due to the first payment of the expanded Child Tax Credit.
State Fact Sheets: Policy Options to Address Youth and Young Adult Poverty
We explore the anti-poverty effects of federal policy options in the areas of basic needs, family tax, and economic opportunity for youth and young adults. We break out state-level results across three age groups: ages 14 to 17, ages 18 to 24, and the whole youth and young adult population (ages 14 to 24), as well as by racial and ethnic groups.
The Potential Poverty Reduction Effect of the American Families Plan
We find the proposed American Families Plan–which continues a set of pandemic-era supports, with additional anti-poverty policies–could reduce the national poverty rate in 2022 by nearly one-quarter and child poverty by nearly half.
The Potential Poverty Reduction Effect of the American Rescue Plan
We find that an economic relief package with an expanded Child Tax Credit, nutrition assistance, unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, and more could cut child poverty by more than half in 2021.
Housing Vouchers and Tax Credits: Pairing the Proposal to Transform Section 8 with Expansions to the EITC and the Child Tax Credit Could Cut the National Poverty Rate by Half
Vice President Biden’s campaign put forward a plan to address the housing affordability crisis through the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program. Such an expansion could lead to substantial reductions in the national poverty rate, which we quantify for the first time in this brief.
A Better Child Tax Credit During the Covid-19 Crisis
Early federal pandemic relief efforts did not focus on children. The Child Tax Credit can be made more generous, reach the one-third of children currently left out, and be delivered monthly to support children through the immediate crisis and beyond.
The Case for Cash Allowances for Children During Economic Crises
Cash allowances for children – for example, through an expanded Child Tax Credit – can reach children currently left out or underserved by other cash and food assistance programs during economic crises.
Children Left Behind in Larger Families: The Uneven Receipt of the Federal Child Tax Credit
Building on our previous work, this brief examines the variation in Child Tax Credit receipt by family size. The findings show that children in larger families are more likely to be left out of the full Child Tax Credit than children in smaller families because the earnings required to access the full credit increases with the number of children in the family.
Income Guarantee Benefits and Financing: Poverty and Distributional Impacts
In this brief, we explore the feasibility of financing a guaranteed income and the potential poverty impacts. In general we find that income guarantee plans can work to reduce poverty at reasonable costs, such as through a fundamental federal income tax reform and carbon tax-and-dividend plan. However, poverty impacts depend on who is eligible and how the benefit is financed.
Children Losing Out: The Geographic Distribution of the Federal Child Tax Credit
Building off of previous work, this brief examines the variation in Child Tax Credit receipt by state and congressional district, finding that children in areas where incomes are lower and poverty rates are higher are those most likely to be left out. These results suggest that proposals to extend the Child Tax Credit to families who are currently losing out could have a substantial impact on child poverty in the United States.
Left Behind: The One-Third of Children in Families Who Earn Too Little to Get the Full Child Tax Credit
The current federal Child Tax Credit provides up to $2,000 per child per year to qualifying children, but low-income families lose out because they do not have enough earnings to qualify for the full benefit. This brief documents who is currently “left behind” in terms of realizing the full benefits of the federal Child Tax Credit because of the CTC’s earnings requirement, finding that those left out are disproportionately children of color, those in families with young children, those with single parents, and those who reside in rural areas.
The Case for Extending State-level Child Tax Credits to Those Left Out
In a joint report with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy we find that expanding the Child Tax Credit at the state level could lift millions of children out of poverty and help families who benefited little or not at all from the 2017 federal expansion of the Child Tax Credit.
A Child Tax Credit in California: Correcting Inequities Created by the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act Would Cut Deep Child Poverty by Nearly One-Third
Correcting inequalities in the Child Tax Credit created by the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act would cut deep poverty among children in California by nearly a third
A Renter’s Tax Credit to Curtail the Affordable Housing Crisis
To address the housing affordability crisis for low-income Americans, we argue for a refundable renter’s tax credit that could reduce the poverty rate by 12.4 percentage points and the deep poverty rate by 8.8 percentage points.